Within the beverage industry, it is known to seal filled bottles or other containers with some sort of seal. These seals include, in particular cap-like seals such as screw caps, flat caps, and crown stoppers. These seals are typically sterilized or disinfected before being placed on a container. A common way to sterilize these seals is to use sterilizing-agents consisting of H2O2 vapor or a gaseous and/or vaporous carrier medium enriched with H2O2 aerosol.
To achieve effective sterilization with a high sterilization rate, it is known to preheat the seals before applying sterilizing-agent. The seals are typically preheated to be within a temperature ranging between 50° C. and 85° C. After the treatment or application of the gaseous and/or vaporous sterilizing-agent, the caps are dried with the use of a preferably heated sterile gaseous and/or vaporous medium, for example with heated sterile air. The sterilized seals, which are by this point suitable for sealing of containers, are then passed to a sealing machine for this purpose.
A known device for the sterilization of seals for containers with H2O2 aerosol or steam has two rotors driven to circulate around a common vertical machine axis. Each rotor is accommodated in a treatment space. On each rotor, seal-holders are distributed about the machine axis. Each seal-holder holds many seals in a row and extends in an axial direction parallel to a machine axis. As the rotors circulate, the seals move with the seal-holders through treatment spaces between a seal-input and a seal-output. In each of the treatment spaces, the seals are sprayed with hot air. This exposure to hot air is carried out specifically to preheat the seals in the treatment space of the upper rotor, to activate the sterilization medium in the treatment space of the lower rotor, and to dry the seals. The actual spraying of sterilization medium on the seals occurs on a treatment path that is oriented parallel to the machine axis and that connects the seal-output of the upper rotor with the seal-input of the lower rotor. Seals move through this treatment path under the influence of gravity.
A device of this type has two rotors, and is therefore quite large. Additionally, the treatment time for spraying the seals with the sterilizing-agent and also the dwell time of the cycled movement of the rotors depend on the velocity at which the seals fall through the treatment path. A further problem with these sterilization units is that once warmed, the seals soften and lose stability of form. This can subsequently lead to mechanical faults in the course of transport and as the seals move freely among one another.
Also known are devices that sterilize seals with UV radiation. In known devices of this type, seals are held in vertically aligned cage-like seal-holders that are formed on the periphery of a rotor that can be driven to rotate about a vertical machine axis. These seal-holders are oriented with their longitudinal extension parallel to the rotor axis. The seals move with the rotor or with the seal-holders on a treatment path between a seal-input and a seal-output past a plurality of UV radiators that do not circulate with the rotor.